This definition of "success" is pretty widespread. In the US, a college education is widely seen as a prerequisite to a middle-class lifestyle (never mind skilled trades or trade schools). Highly prestigious employers (especially in the financial or tech sectors) tend to show favoritism towards students with degrees from prestigious universities. There are analogous problems in Europe and India (e.g. the oversize social importance that IITs, grandes ecoles, Cambridge/Oxford hold). Trying to convince people that success should be defined by happiness or personal fulfillment, rather than social standing or wealth, is a very difficult problem.

Another factor is that a lot of parents in China either experienced significant material deprivation themselves, or are one generation away from people who did. So to these parents "success" through wealth (and hence security from poverty) takes on disproportionate importance. This sort of dynamic can also be seen in a lot of first-generation Asian-American households, often to the detriment of the relationship between the parents and their children.